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Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Well,
after a month of being home in Jeddah, I`ve finally found the time to write.
What’s driven me (almost forced me because I’m slightly incapacitated...) to
write has become somewhat of an opportunity to contemplate life here. Since
last night, I’ve had a terrible, terrible stomach ache that simply won’t go away!
I left work early this afternoon with the ever-growing sensation of knives stabbing
my insides. Not fun. I’ve had stomach problems my whole life; I remember being
in grade one and going to a specialist with my mom. No doctor really diagnosed
what’s wrong. Considering that the elimination of various foods didn’t point to
anything diet-wise, my conclusion is simple. Stress.

Back to the desert!

“Stress...in
Saudi Arabia?!” you may be asking. “Aren’t you in the most laid-back part of
the world? Where things take forever to get done, where taking your time is the
name of the game?” Well, let’s go back in time a little bit and recall the time
when I thought the same way...

Stress?

What
We Expect

Since
returning to Jeddah on September 3rd, this past month has flown by in a flurry
of, yes, chaos and busyness. When I first moved to Saudi Arabia, I was under
the impression that all things in the Kingdom are done in a leisurely, relaxed
pace. I was "sold" on the idea that moving here would mean a new
lifestyle marked by short workdays, lots of holidays and opportunities to
travel, and weekends spent gallivanting around shopping and visiting with
friends.

At
his job, DH, who was here for two and a half years before I joined him, comes
and goes depending on his class schedule. Some days, he teaches for three hours
in the morning and is then free from 11am on! Needless to say, I had some
pretty rosy glassed on when I decided to move here!

Commuter train in Toronto

Today
at work I was chatting with my wonderful boss, M. She's really sweet and we get
along amazingly well, Alhamdulillah (Arabic for praise God!). Years ago, M used to work in Paris. She commuted back
and forth from work to home for three hours a day. She took a bus, the train,
and was rushed, rushed, rushed with work, family, and life commitments. This is
life in the West. I, too, as an undergraduate student, graduate student and an
employee often felt simultaneouslyburdened
with so many commitments: extra-curriculars, volunteering, school work,
teaching and research assistantships, funding applications, family
responsibilities, and later on wedding planning to top it all off!

And
then came the opportunity to move to KSA. "Yes," I thought.
"Finally a break. Finally all my hard work, my rushing here and there, my
chaotic life will come to a halt." I couldn't wait for a change of pace.

In the
meantime, DH showed me around my new city, took me for dinner, drove me to the
Red Sea Mall, the Red Sea, and showed me a good time. And then I started
working.

My first trip to the Red Sea, December 2011

Reality
Sets In

Starting
a new job is not easy. Neither is being in a new country. Being newly married
isn’t a walk in the park, either! Needless to say, it was a tough, tough year
adjusting to all these new things.

Oh, how I
resented my husband at the time. (I’m sorry, my love!) My job was (and is) NOT
a simple “go in for your classes, then head on home” kind of job. While DH often
brought work home, he, as a man who is permitted to drive here, had the “leisure”
of being able to drive straight home after work. Even if I finished class at
11am, he taught until 4pm on those days and so I had to wait for him, my DH, my
DD (designated driver!).

Wishing I was allowed to drive our car...

Exit/Re-Entry
Visas

On top of
this, DH had promised that we’d have the chance to travel and “see the world”
when I moved here. [Let me pause for a
second and draw your attention to something quite *interesting* [insert sarcasm
here!!]: Saudi Arabia is the ONLY country in the world where you not only
require a visa to ENTER the country, but one to EXIT and RE-ENTER again. A
person’s employer / sponsor must issue this document for a person who is not
Saudi to leave the country.] So, go figure that when I finally arrived in
Jeddah, it was the first year that DH’s workplace stopped allowing employees
exit / re-entry visas at any time other than over Hajj Break (the annual pilgrimage
to Makkah). Like some large corporations, DH’s university gives long vacations
a number of times throughout the year, but no longer allows employees to leave
the country. How frustrating!!! Last year, I did end up visiting friends who
are teaching in Kuwait, but without DH it just wasn’t the same. This year (actually, in just over two weeks a really good friend of mine and I are traveling to Ireland for our vacation!) I guess it`s not all bad news--at least I can come and go!

No traveling for him...

Overall,
my misconceptions about what it meant to “work” in Saudi Arabia were honestly
one of the worst perpetrators of my negativity and consequent attitude about
being here. The college where I work isn’t just another “private” college. It’s
an internationally-accredited, degree-granting university. The first one in
Jeddah to be American accredited, in fact. Accordingly, we have extremely high standards,
academic and otherwise, to maintain, and this means that faculty necessarily
have to work longer and harder than instructors at other institutions. At the
end of the day, though, this is what drew me to my place of work. I had other
job offers (I wrote about one of them here: http://pinkjeddahsunset.blogspot.ca/2011/05/delays-and-other-job-offers.html), but my school has so many benefits.

The College!

The garden at work

The
Silver Lining

As with other
Saudi schools, it’s an all-female environment. Once I’m at work, I can take off
my abaya and hijab and wear what are considered, by Canadian standards, “normal”
business-casual clothes. OH, THE FREEDOM!!! Seriously, when a man enters the
college (to fix something or to give a workshop, etc.), alerts go off over the
PA system: “A man is in the building.
Please put on your abayas. I repeat: put on your abayas!!!” Sitting at work
or teaching in the classroom in an abaya and hijab is definitely not as
comfortable as wearing “normal” clothes. I prefer that the men stay away!

Although
I worked so much last year—and in fact I’ve been teaching two extra classes
this semester because we’re waiting for another faculty member to receive her
visa; I’ve also taken up a tutoring position three nights a week—this year is
much better. At the college, we have lots of extra-curriculars, events and
activities. Last year I taught piano lessons to Saudi students, and this year a
colleague and I have started the Drama and Music Club. We’ll put on a production
each semester and get the girls involved in the fine arts.

The
college also has English and Arabic Journalism Clubs, a Mock UN Club (that won
something last year in a competition at Harvard!), sports clubs, and basketball,
badminton, and dance teams, just to name a few! It’s a bustling, busy place.

The atrium where the Club Fair was today!

Champion Sports Room

We offer
majors including Law, Business, Fashion and Interior Design, Architecture,
Arabic, the Social Sciences, and many others. Graduates have gone on to
complete master’s degrees and PhDs in America, Canada and Europe. I’m really
and truly proud to be part of the community where I work. Yes, I work a lot of
long, hours, but what teacher doesn’t (okay, maybe there are *some*...)?

And I
Wouldn’t Change a Thing!

(...except
for my stomach ache lol)

At the
end of the day, most of my students are hard-working, honest and respectful young
women who have solid goals, plans and ambitions they can’t wait to embark on! We
have fantastic discussions about social issues, women’s rights, and the ongoing
rapid changes—especially in women’s education, as I’ve described above—in this
rapidly-developing country. I’m thrilled to be a part of this amazingly
inspiring social change in Saudi Arabia, and am honoured to spend so much time
with this strong, determined generation of Arab women.

About Me

I am an English PhD candidate embarking on a couple of exciting journeys: marriage, and a big move to Saudi Arabia! This blog is about my move abroad and my cultural observations of the well known—but often misunderstood—Middle Eastern Kingdom.